The invention relates to an adjusting mechanism for a touch sensor attached to a forward edge of an arm provided to a lathe to detect a setting position of a bit and to send a detected signal.
FIGS. 8(a) and 8(b) are a plan view and a front view, respectively, for showing a conventional touch sensor to be connected to an arm of a lathe. In the front view in FIG. 8(b), only an arm is cut at its center to show its section.
As shown in FIG. 8(b), a touch sensor 71 is formed of a housing 73 having a plurality of contact portions 72, and a flange 74 at a lower part of the housing 73. When the touch sensor 71 is attached to an arm of a lathe (both not shown), a cylindrical portion 74a located below the flange 74 is inserted into a hole of the arm, and a plurality of bolts (not shown) passing through bolt holes 64b formed in the flange 74 is fastened to the arm. Incidentally, numeral 75 indicates an O-ring, and numeral 76 indicates lead wires.
A fastened plane surface between the flange 74 and an arm side flange is perpendicular to the respective contacts 72. In case the touch sensor 71 is attached to the arm, it is required that each contact 72 is perpendicular to or parallel to a center line of a main axis of the lathe. Since the flange 74 and the arm side flange are rotatable around a line Z-Z', after the contacts 72 are adjusted to be perpendicular to or parallel to the center line of the main axis of the lathe by rotating or tapping an outer periphery of the flange 74 with respect to the axis Z-Z' while slightly loosening the fastening screws, the fastening screws are tightly fastened.
According to the above described method, it is difficult to make a fine adjustment and is required to make adjustments several times, thus resulting in increase in adjusting steps.
To solve the above described problems, the present invention has been made, and an object of the present invention is to provide an adjusting mechanism for a touch sensor, which has a simple structure and can be adjusted easily.
Another object of the invention is to provide an adjusting mechanism for a touch sensor as stated above, wherein a fine adjustment can be carried out at an extremely short time.
A further object of the invention is to provide an adjusting mechanism for a touch sensor as stated above, wherein the touch sensor can be replaced easily if required.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.